Forgery

A state appeal court on Tuesday dismissed a felony forgery charge against Republican Assemblyman John R. Lewis of Orange, ruling that Lewis committed no crime even if he did order the mailing of hundreds of thousands of campaign letters bearing the phony signature of former President Ronald Reagan.

Police have arrested three men and a 16-year-old boy on suspicion of manufacturing fake birth certificates, driver's licenses and immigration, Social Security and insurance cards. The arrests came after investigators received a tip Wednesday morning that a man was selling forged government documents on the street near Main and Bishop streets near downtown, said Santa Ana Police Sgt. Raul Luna.

A Sherman Oaks couple have filed a lawsuit against State Farm Fire and Casualty Co., accusing it of forging signatures on insurance forms and destroying documents to avoid paying claims from the 1994 Northridge earthquake. Two former State Farm employees have given sworn testimony supporting the accusations, and say such practices are common at the company, according to court documents.

Orange County Assemblyman John R. Lewis surrendered to Sacramento authorities Tuesday after he was indicted on one felony count of forgery for his role in mailing thousands of 1986 campaign letters bearing the phony signature of then-President Reagan. Lewis, a conservative Republican assemblyman from the City of Orange, turned himself in at the Sacramento County Jail after he was secretly charged Monday night by the Sacramento County Grand Jury.

A U.S. District Court judge sentenced a former Secret Service officer to 16 months in federal prison Monday for selling sports memorabilia bearing the forged signature of former President Ronald Reagan--the man he guarded for 13 years. Randolph Espinosa, 46, of Ramona, and Richard Schwartz, 59, a Canoga Park pawnbroker, pleaded guilty earlier this year to mail fraud.

Police arrested a 66-year-old man who admitted selling forgeries of paintings by British artist L.S. Lowry, the Malaga civil governor's office said. The office said John Green, 66, a native of Stroud, England, and a resident of this southern resort, told police he sold 50 forged Lowry works for prices of up to $2,608 each since 1976.

The state Senate passed and sent to the Assembly a bill endorsed by former President Ronald Reagan to make it a crime to use an unauthorized signature in campaign literature. The legislation by Sen. William A. Craven (R-Oceanside) was prompted by a 1986 mailer authorized by Assemblyman John R. Lewis, a GOP strategist from Orange County, that contained Reagan's unapproved signature.

A man dubbed the "Buffalo Spammer" for allegedly sending 825 million unwanted e-mails has been arrested and charged with forgery and identity theft, New York Atty. Gen. Eliot Spitzer said. Howard Carmack, a 36-year-old Buffalo resident, entered not guilty pleas before a Buffalo City Court judge and bail was set at $20,000, the attorney general's office said. Carmack was charged with stealing the identity of two people to open Internet access accounts with EarthLink Inc.

Two deputies investigating a possible check forgery were fired upon Tuesday by a gunman who then ran to a car driven by a woman and sped away. Neither deputy was injured in the shooting, which occurred about 5:40 p.m. at a Vermont district check-cashing business, said Deputy Dan Cox of the Los Angeles County Sheriff's Department. Cox said Deputies Valerie Fines and Gary Lebeau were shot at as they approached a man inside the Quick Check on Century Boulevard.

A Culver City man accused of trying to steal more than $644,000 from the state by adding a few extra digits to his tax refund check was charged Thursday with forgery and attempted grand theft. State officials, who said the case is one of the largest of its kind in state history, say Mathison B. Coleman, 56, allegedly increased the amount of his $33.62 state refund check to $644,933.62 before submitting it to his bank in Manhattan Beach. "Now wasn't that chutzpah? Can you believe it?